If a mindee ruined your cot and it was unusable, what would you do?

so do I...

I really want to know how it went.....

Ooops, meant to say stuff I consider to be outside of normal minding costs, 'cause we dont pay extra for these trips / fairs etc

Well this has certainly been a giggle to read, and ewwwww at those who have had children projectile vomit in their mouths, I struggle enough when DD spits chewed food into her hand and then tries to stuff it in my mouth.

QE, hope you got on well with the CM.

I use a CM and she does not use travel cots / cots. The older kids sleep on the sofa if they need a nap, and the younger ones sleep in prams. Which I am totally comfortable because on a weekend, DD (nearly two) either takes her nap in the pram or on the sofa.

My DD went through a stage of sticking her hands down the back of her trousers and into her nappy (and looking bewildered if there was any poo on the fingers when she brought them out) but I just warned the CM and so she was aware.

I dont think my CM would have asked me to pay for a replacement but I probably would have offered (she would have then refused but I would still look like an angel ), but in fairness my CM does do a lot of things outside of what I would consider normal minding, e.g. in the past few weeks she has taken DD to the zoo, to a wild life park, to several beauty spots with activities for picnics etc, so I think I get a bargain!

Update Please!!

How'd it go??

I must say you are a very accommodating client to clean all the poo off that travel cot. Are you going to submit a cleaning bill?

I hope she felt like a right idiot when you brought back the clean travel cot.

Just read a few of the posts. I don't think she should have been watching him 'at all times, even when he is sleeping'.
Surely you don't all sit and watch your child the whole time they're asleep.

Also, to whoever said that he 'was left in a soiled nappy' . He could have done it after she'd put him down to have a sleep. Some people are so quick to judge childminders etc.

If I were you I'd offer to go halves. Travel cots aren't that much money.

I also think that it would be really hard to clean it so that it doesn't smell etc. The little holes are tiny and the poo in them all....yuk! I'd chuck it.

ROFL at fio pooing on her lounge rug.

Travel cots + awake 2.5 year old completely unchecked and alone for 30 minutes seems really unsafe to me. But I have no concept of children who lie still for hours on end without crying/getting distressed/climbing out/trying to collapse a travel cot on themselves.

just caught this!, howd you get on?
for ther ecord, she is totally taking the pee if she expected you seriously to pay for a replacement after your ds had pooed on it...she/we as c.m buy all our equiptment and the only time o would ask for money is if a child persistantly smashed/broke things!, so many toys, so many accidents involved in breaking them!, i dont get her!?

NannyL, my ds wasn't safe to leave in a travel cot at 2 - he would just climb out of it, and gave us many a fright when he appeared in my mum's living room. He could just as easily have wandered out the front door without us noticing. Of course, we learned from that and kept the outside door locked when he was in bed, but really it was safer to have him in a bed without sides so he didn't hurt himself whe he got out.

The first time he got out of his proper cot was when he was 8 months - I hadn't thought to put it down to its lowest level because my girls weren't escapologists like him. Even after lowering it, it didn't take him many months to work out how to jump over the sides!

Anyway, I don't think the cm in this case was right to ask the op to replace her cot. Hopefully she will have accepted it back without complaint and they can get back to normal.

let us know how you got on

i don't like pull ups. they feel just like nappies, so how is the child going to know that they can't wee in it when for 2/3 years all they have ever known is to wee in a nappy?

as a cm you have to expect accidents with potty trainers and that some aren't always going to tell you they need the toilet. although tbh, my ds is a bit slow on the talking side of things and until he can tell me he wants to go to the toilet i won't even contemplate potty training. don't really think it can be done effectively otherwise. if they aren't going to tell you, it becomes parent training where you are just taking them to the toilet all the time just incase.

so i can sort of see where you were both coming from on that one.

Hope it went ok for you this morning, you did the right thing I would be more than pleased, as a CM, if you had done it for me,

Good luck, be strong QE.

CMs are 'independent contractors' who supply their own equipment to use in the course of their duties and it is her own responsibility to maintain it. She should have appropriate insurance but as this is a reasonably inexpensive item she'll most likely find that it costs less than her excess and so she'll just have to pay for it.

Children do take their nappies off sometimes and smear, it's just one of those things. If she was so worried about it then she should have monitored him more closely.
If you still really like her and want to remain on good terms for the benefit of your children then you could be really generous and offer to go 50/50 on a new one but make sure you take the old one and sell it on ebay to make up your loss. Otherwise, provide your own cot for him to use and take it with you when you stop using her. However, I wonder if she had the latter arrangement with someone else and put your son in their cot, hence the panic.

Oh, and BTW, my son may perhaps be developmentally slow but at 2.7/2.8 he has taken great delight in smearing poo in as many places as he can find. Never done it before mind.

morning paper why are you concerned about a tired 2 year old beng left alone in a (travel) cot?

My little 23 month old is often chatting for up to 45 mins before he falls asleep (other times he is out like a light for 2 hours!)

but he is safe so up thre he stays... if i kept checking on him he would never fall asleep

Belgo not every CM has room to leave a cot up all the time, Im lucky I have and do have proper Cots (Ikea £29.00) but most have to put cots up in their bedrooms and take them down when finished with.

she should just buy a proper cot that's easy to clean and a lot more comfortable then those travel cots.

I would be more worried about her leaving my 2.5 year old AWAKE in a travel cot in a room by herself for 30 minutes TBH

Anything can be done with gloves on. I know because I have cleaned up the most foulest of adult bodily fluids (lots worse than poo/vomit) and not vomited yet. NHS doesn't just 'chuck' stuff out that becomes soiled. It gets given a bloody good clean.